On April 16, former Lipscomb University baseball player Will Blalock stepped on the mound and threw out the first pitch as the Bisons hosted Vanderbilt. This simple action was a monumental achievement for Will, who just one-and-a-half years prior had suffered a tragic accident that changed his life in an instant.

Will and his family were enjoying a few days of relaxation at a friend’s lake house on November 25, 2022, when Will decided to take a short ride on an all-terrain vehicle, or ATV. A considerable amount of time had passed, and Will had not returned.

Concerned friends and family searched the route Will had taken on his ride. They wound up finding him lying motionless in the middle of the road. A loving husband and father who had completed an Iron Man competition just one year prior, Will had been thrown from the ATV, suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Following an airlift via Life Flight to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, surgeons performed emergency surgery, removing a piece of Will’s skull to allow his brain to swell through a procedure known as a craniectomy.

For the next two weeks, Will remained in a coma and on a ventilator as his family stood watch by his bedside. As his condition began to improve, Will was moved from the Trauma ICU to Vanderbilt’s Neurological Intensive Care Unit. He remained there until December, when he was moved to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, one of the premiere rehabilitation centers for brain injuries in the U.S.

There, Will spent the next three months relearning how to walk, talk, eat, and move his limbs. Will’s case was unusual, as most patients sustaining similar injuries experience mobility issues specific to the limbs on the opposite side of the brain injury. Will’s injury, however, affected his right-side limbs, the same side as the injury to his brain.

“Will’s right side is his dominant side, and he could barely move his arm when we first moved to the Shepherd Center,” says his wife, Chandler. “That was the thing they began working on immediately — improving the movement on his right side.”

Chandler notes that the move to Atlanta to support Will was a team effort.

“Will’s parents, as well as his sister and brother in-law and their families, just picked up everything and moved down there to support us,” she reports. “We have friends who were so generous to make it possible for us to stay down there, and Will’s boss has been incredible. They just supported us from day one.”

By May 2023, Will’s condition had improved to the point that he had begun to walk independently again. He was released from the Shepherd Center and returned to Nashville to begin neurotherapy designed to assist with improving his mobility and regaining his short-term memory.

While Will’s doctors have attributed the miraculous recovery to his age and the fact that he was in excellent physical shape at the time of the accident, the Blalocks believe faith has also played a part in the process.

“We’re people of faith, so we believe God has healed Will,” Chandler explains. “Obviously, we would have loved for this not to have happened at all, but we're finding peace in the fact that Will’s story has touched people's lives, and we see purpose in that.”

After his playing days at Lipscomb came to an end, Will maintained a close relationship with Head Baseball Coach Jeff Forehand, who diligently checked in on Will throughout his recovery.

“Coach Forehand has been such a part of Will’s recovery, from checking in on him to praying for him diligently,” says Chandler. “He never wavered in his belief that Will would recover, and he began talking about Will throwing out the first pitch early on, even before Will could move.”

The April 16 game against Vanderbilt was a reunion of sorts, as the Life Flight team who transported Will, as well as Will’s doctors, nurses, and therapists from Vanderbilt, were honored on the field for the part they played in Will’s recovery.

“If there's one word to describe how we all feel, it's grateful, just really, really grateful,” Chandler adds. “Will has had the tenacity and the drive to keep going, and we're just so grateful that this team of people has gotten him to where he is today.”